What to see in Volterra - Artistic itineraries
"On your Etruscan walls, herm Volterra, founded in the cliff, at your gates without screeching, I saw dead people of the gloomy city that was underground [...] Far away the feverish Maremmas I saw, and the leaden mountains, and the whitish sea, and Elba and the wild Archipelago. Then my inert flesh was composed in the sculpted alabaster sarcophagus where Circe is and her brutal drink "
Gabriele D'Annunzio
"Isabella at that time was perhaps traveling to Volterra, across the crete of the Valdera, across the sterile biancane; beyond the chalky hill along a walled and turreted feature, the city of wind and boulder "
Gabriele D'Annunzio
"Here I was stimulated by the ancient Etruscan enigma, Volterra, which is a perfect expression of it, the superiority complex of the Jewish race, a figure of a woman"
Luchino Visconti
"We walked down the narrow, gloomy alleys that seemed almost to lean against each other and took a look at the alabaster workshops, where the workers, with their Monday morning bad mood and sleepiness, were returning, cutting and polishing the tender alabaster. "
David Herbert Lawrence
Demonstrations
Volterra AD 1398
Historic center, week of August
Website: www.volterra1398.it
Have you ever wondered what life was like in the Middle Ages? This grandiose historical reenactment gives you the chance to find out. For a whole week in Volterra the hands of time are moved back several centuries. Merchants, artisans, musicians, jugglers, commoners and nobles, all in fourteenth-century costume, animate the streets of the historic center. The Grosso Volterrano is the only coin in circulation and, if you wish, you can actively participate in the event by becoming the baker's boy, the blacksmith's shop boy, in short, carrying out any typical job of the time, including that of assistant to the executioner.
Volterra Jazz
Website: www.volterrajazz.it
Historic center, July
Concerts, jazz performances.
Useful numbers
Tourist information office
Via Giusto Turazza, 2
Telephone 0588.86150 Fax 0588.90350
E-mail provolterra@libero.it
How to get
On the train
The Saline di Volterra station, a hamlet about 10 km from the center of Volterra, is connected only to the Cecina station, by railcar and with infrequent journeys, mainly during the school period. Sometimes the Cecina-Saline di Volterra section is carried out with a replacement car service, always borne by the State Railways.
The most used nearby railway stations are those of Cecina and Pontedera. These stations are connected with Volterra by bus.
By bus
The public service guarantees numerous connections between Volterra and various Tuscan cities.
By plane
The closest airports are those of Pisa, Florence and Grosseto.
History
In the Etruscan age the city took the name of Velathri and was one of the twelve locumonies. In Roman times it became a town hall and a bishopric from the 5th century. Following severe conflicts with San Gemignano and Florence, it became part of the Guelph League. Finished in 1361 under the Florentine hegemony, it recognized its dominion in 1472. Since then its fortunes have been linked to those of the Duchy first and then Graducato di Toscana.